Last night there was an incredible feast of salmon, moose, bear and many other foods in Fraser Lake. The Nadleh Whut’en Traditional Dancers were wonderful. Beautiful singing drums and the children danced. The frog, bear, wolf and cariboo clans competed in raising money for Salmon Are Sacred and gifted us with over $400. We thank everyone who cooked, attended and helped us continue on our journey through the Fraser Watershed.
Early the next morning we headed for Fort St. James
Where we met Fisheries Manager Clara Jack and she took us to meet 87 year old Betsy Leon
Betsy still fishes and she was very happy that there were more salmon this year than last. She showed us her smoke house and her freezer full of split and dried sockeye salmon from Stuart Lake. Betsy told us that Chief Kwah used to decide when the people could fish and that he always made sure the first fish passed through and so ensured there were enough to spawn. Kwan incidently had four or five wives and populated the whole area. After he died they say he still regulated the fishery by causing a big wind to blow so hard when the salmon first arrived that no one could go out and set their nets until a good portion of the run had made it past the fishing area and could spawn.
We heard that due to the past few years of very poor salmon runs the boats and equipment had fallen into disrepair and so this way of life was vanishing.
Betsy signed our Salmon Are Sacred scroll. Clara Jack is doing all that she can to ensure these salmon continue to thrive – thank you Clara for this and also for the salve for my leg.
Then we left the van and trailer behind and all crammed into my car and headed for Tachie to meet Fisheries Manager Kirby Johnnie
Kirby kindly took us to Tachie Creek where some of the Stuart sockeye spawn. It is a beautiful gentle, wide river. We were too late to see living early Stuart sockeye, but we could see the contribution they were making to the nutrients of this watershed
We also got to see the numerous tiny Kokanee that were everywhere. These tiny sockeye-looking fish are only as long as a man’s hand
As we talk to people throughout the last 2,000 km of river and tributaries I remain impressed at the dedication of people throughout to salmon. We are encouraging all to support Justice Cohen in his investigation of what has happened to Fraser sockeye. Clearly the fish can thrive, but they have become unreliable and no one knows why. I have done everything I can to support government investigations into the impact of salmon feedlots on wild salmon since 1989. Despite huge effort and money and some excellent findings ALL of these studies are siting ignored on shelves. While the Cohen Inquiry is not entirely on salmon feedlot impact on sockeye, this aspect of the investigation is very large. When I offered to carry the beautiful fish signs carrying the names of the rivers the people of the Stellat’en First Nation said they would carry them, themselves to the Cohen Inquiry on October 25th. They are going to retrace the distance their salmon traveled to take a stand. Clearly salmon not only feed our world and our bodies, they feed our soul.
